Love's Last Battle
by Asra
Summary: Lily and James have never been close. Yet after an incident in school they both end up in detention, which unintentionally leads them to a place they never expected to go. Its hard to stay enemies when both their lives are on the line.
1. Fiery Trouble

_A/N:  My first Hate/Love fic.  Hope you enjoy it!  Please review!_

Disclaimer:  This story is based on characters and situations created and owned by JK Rowling, various publishers including but not limited to Bloomsbury Books, Scholastic Books and Raincoast Books, and Warner Bros., Inc. No money is being made and no copyright or trademark infringement is intended.

_*LOVE'S LAST BATTLE*_

_~Chapter 1~_

Lily walked furiously through the corridors. Frustration flooded her mind as the day's activities kept arising one after the other as if for no better purpose then to annoy her.  This was her fifth year at Hogwarts and James Potter, her worst enemy, had done nothing but make those years miserable. Today was no exception. 

As she rushed down the halls, Lily thought back on her encounter with James earlier that morning. As usual, his three stubborn friends, Sirius Black, Remus Lupin and Peter Pettigrew, accompanied him. These four had a big reputation for getting into trouble.  To themselves they were amused by their own actions, but to the school of Hogwarts, they were no better then that of a ferocious tornado.  Where ever these four went trouble always followed. Lily stopped abruptly in front of the pack as James swiftly jumped in front of her.  He grinned mischievously at her.

"What do you want?" asked Lily. 

"Hello to you too," said James, "I don't want anything.  Just on my way to the Great Hall, that's all.  But now that you mention it, I was hoping to talk to a little porky fire ant I know." 

"Oh so in other words you wanted a one on one conversation with yourself, is that it?" asked Lily unamused by his innocent tone of voice.

He looked at her with a hurtful expression.  

"Hey now that's no way to talk to your fellow classmates!"

"Yes well I wouldn't consider you a classmate.  You're more of annoying fly that won't go away.  So why don't you leave me alone and go to the Great hall to retrieve your bib.  Try not to lose it again or you might make somebody gag when they watch you eat like a slob.  I think I saw the little yellow ducky bib in the lost and found."  

Quiet laughter arose from people passing in the halls.

"Shut up," said James as his face contorted with fury. 

Lily tried to push past them, but James grabbed her arm tightly and swung her around. Lily's books and papers flew from her grasp and landed loudly on the stone floor.  Adrenaline rushed through her veins and she was barely aware of the fact that her fist rose with lightining speed and collided painfully with James.  She took a deep breath and jumped back away from him as he fell to the floor, his arms splayed out before him.  Lily watched as he lay there for several seconds recovering from the shock of the hit and then he quickly got to his feet. He shot her a venomous look and then turned to look at his all too quiet friends behind him.  

Sirius put his hand up over his mouth to stop from laughing but as soon as James turned around he could hold it no longer.  Loud laughter poured from him and it quickly became contagious as the rest of James's friends began to laugh as well.  

"Oh and it looks as if the scruffy dog loses the battle to the victorious and deadly punch of the cats claw," said Remus in between hiccups of laughter. 

Peter doubled over with laughter and fell to his knees laughing uncontrollably.  

A small smile curled around Lily's lips and the sharp pain from her hand was slowly lessening to a dull throb.

"James, dear, you may want to watch who you make enemies with.  Not all of us girls are like the weak and pitiful ones you date," said Lily with amusement.

James's dark eyes sharpened and pure resounding hatred flowed to his features.

"You…you mud blood!"

The laughter ceased, and dead silence echoed off the walls.  People walking by stopped in their tracks and looked sternly at James.  Anger rushed into Lily and she let go of any mental restraint that she had as she leapt for James's throat.  

Suddenly Lily was caught in mid air by two strong arms and her sharp nails swiped dangerously close to James's face as he speeded backwards, pummeling into his friends to avoid her anger.  Hagrid continued to hold tightly to Lily as she tried to struggle free. 

"LET ME GO HAGRID!! I NEED TO KILL HIM!!"

"What's goin' on here," asked Hagrid as he cautiously released Lily from his grip. 

"Why don't you ask James," replied Lily hatefully as she dropped to the floor to collect her scattered books and papers. 

"Well?" asked Hagrid looking directly at James's guilty face. 

"What are you looking at me for?" asked James innocently. "She is the one who punched me." 

Lily stood up, and eyed James with wild green eyes, and then stomped off towards the library. 

"Ye see what ye done!" said Hagrid as he ran off down the hall towards Lily. 

"Whoa, talk about aggressive women!" said Peter as his laughter finally subsided. 

"Yeah, you aren't kidding. Looks like you have got your work cut out for you James.  But personally if it were me, I wouldn't go near her again.  Geez if Hagrid hadn't been there just now she might have chocked the living daylights out of you.  Although it's not like you don't deserve it.  What the heck was going through your head, James?  You disappoint me.  We never insult people like that!" said Sirius and then as an after thought, "Mr. Grumpy, I think you need a time out."

James looked at Sirius and gave a harsh laugh. This was war and Lily Evans was going down. 

Lily continued to walk furiously down the hallway. Her vibrant red hair flew back and her papers fluttered, as she hurried toward the library hoping to escape all sight of James Potter. 

'How could he be so inconsiderate,' Lily thought to herself. 'But then again he has always been like this.' 

She shook her head in frustration, and tried to erase all the unwanted thoughts floating about in her head. After several minutes of fierce walking, she finally made it to her destination. She plopped down in the closest library chairs and began to pull assignments from her books. Lily's eyes clouded but she bravely held back her tears.  She opened one of her books and started to read the first line when suddenly Hagrid came bustling into the room.  

"Lily, what's the matter with ya?" 

"What do you mean?" asked Lily quietly. 

"What do I mean? Lily ye nearly knocked James Potter unconscious!"

"Don't get your self in a jumble," said Lily calmly. 

Hagrid began to lose his temper at her remark. 

"Lily, ye could have been expelled if ye had really hurt him!  Now I know that I don't always know whats going on with the students during school Lily with me being the gamekeeper and all, but please try to restrain yourself!" 

Madame Pince, The librarian, whispered loudly "Shhh…!!!" 

"Hagrid lets go outside, okay" said Lily. "I don't want to get kicked out of the library.  I have too many things to do." 

Hagrid sighed with dismay and then nodded.

He followed her outside into the hall, and Hagrid immediately began to pace back and fourth. He opened his mouth to say something to Lily when James and his friends walked over. 

"Next time Lily, maybe you should try fighting me without a babysitter!" said James smugly.  

Lily starred at him for two minutes and James began to squirm in her sight as her bright green eyes appeared to be burning a hole right throw his very image.  

"I can fight my own battles unlike you," replied Lily and then pointed to his three friends that cowered behind him for fear that her wrath might fall onto them. 

Lily took a step closer to James until his face was inches from her own, and everyone knew trouble was brewing. 

"Would you like to see?" Lily asked James quietly.

James was about to respond but abruptly a thought jumped into his head and he had an overpowering urge to pull her close and kiss her.  He quickly shook his head of such a horrifying thing and began to feel sick.  

Hagrid moved forward, ready to grab Lily if something bad happened. James looked uncertainly into Lily's eyes, and saw that she was sincere to her word. Wanting to avoid another knock out he took a step back towards his friends hoping both to avoid a fight and be free from the terrible spell of thoughts. Sirius looked uncertainly at James and gave him a questioning look. Lily sensed something was wrong, and looked about cautiously. She spotted Peter and Remus reach slowly for their wands, from the corner of her eye. 

"You know what," said Lily smugly. "I'm not about to get down to your stupidity level and fight you, Potter, so get out of my way!" 

With that Lily walked straight through James and Sirius, while Hagrid followed closely behind. James quickly turned around just in time to see Lily sit down at a table. Something small and shiny fell from her neck and onto the floor beside her. Inspiration struck James and he immediately formulated a plan to retrieve the object. Sirius, Remus, and Peter had already started to walk away but James stopped them. 

"Wait a second guys." 

"What are you doing? Are you crazy?" asked Peter, as James walked towards Lily. 

"Be quite, and follow my lead." 

The four silently crept into the library. James slowly approached Lily's seat, when Hagrid turned around and spotted him. 

"What are ya doing?" asked Hagrid. 

"I need a book for class," James replied swiftly, and his friends nodded their heads in agreement. 

"Well go look somewhere else.  I think you've cause enough trouble for today."

Hagrid turned back to Lily and without thinking James bent down next to Lily and snatched up a shiny locket. Lily felt his presence and automatically looked up just in time to see James holding something small and gold. 

 "Oh no," she groaned as she reached up to her neck where the locket had originally been. 

"My locket!" 

James ran for the hall and Lily stood up and racked her brain for a spell to use. Finally it came to her and her hand went flying into her pocket pulling out her wand. 

"Erisedante!" 

James flew up in the air still clutching the locket, and then he began to spin, slowly at first and then faster and faster until the James could see nothing but a blur of color. He spun so many times Lily thought she would get sick if she looked any longer. Abruptly James stopped spinning and was flung against the library wall, causing the shelves to rattle and several large books to land with a heavy thud on the floor. He landed in a heap and then disappeared. 

"Lily what…what happened?" asked Hagrid, shock clearly evident in his voice.

"Don't worry about it Hagrid, James needed a time out and I gave him one." 

Lily bent down into her backpack and pulled out a small glass jar. She walked over to where James had been and scooped something tiny into the jar. Remus, Peter, and Sirius stood with their mouths hanging open, and Lily let out a small laugh. She put the lid back on the jar and then knelt down onto her knees and picked up her locket from underneath a dusty book.

Lily smiled maliciously at the three remaining marauders.

"There is nothing better then good old fashioned fun."


	2. Ants go marching one by one

_A/N: Here's the second chapter.  It has been revised so if you have read this before and it looks different don't worry. Reviews are greatly appreciated!_

_~Chapter 2~_

The library was unnaturally quiet as Lily walked back to her table.  

"Lily what's in that jar?" asked Hagrid.

"Have a look," she replied and held up the jar. Hagrid gasped. 

Inside the jar was a tiny red ant. It scurried around the bottom of its container like a crazed animal bumping into the glass walls of its prison.

"That's not…James?"

"You'd better believe it.  That'll teach him to watch what he says.  Now who's the little porky fire ant?"

Lily laughed gleefully as she inspected the ant more closely.  However her happiness was to be short lived.

"MISS EVANS! Do you see what you've done to those shelves?" asked Madame Pince the librarian. 

Lily quickly hid the glass jar behind her and looked up at the shelves.  Books lay scattered around the floor and dust was flying like a storm around the disorganized shelves.

"I'm very sorry Madame Pince."

"Sorry is not good enough Miss Evans. You've got detention!" 

Lily's voice squeaked, "No please!! I can't go to detention I have too much homework and I…"

"You must learn to accept the consequences for your actions.  You will go to detention. Now where is Mr. Potter?" 

Lily slowly pulled the jar out from behind her back and held it up for Madame Pince to see. 

"Your matters have just gotten worse, I'm afraid," she replied sternly. "Mr. Potter will be receiving detention as well."

Lily gagged and looked at the small critter scurrying back and fourth. 

"I suggest you bring your classmate to the hospital wing immediately." 

"But…" Lily started. 

"No but's Miss Evans, take Mr. Potter to the hospital wing. Oh and bring his friends with you. Goodness knows I don't need any more trouble." 

With that Madam Pince stomped off back to her desk. 

"This is great! Just great!" said Lily sarcastically.

She grabbed her backpack quickly from the chair and tossed the jar roughly inside. 

Hagrid remained silent as he watched Lily walk over to the remaining marauders. All mouths still open, each of them gaped at her as she came nearer. 

"Come on, and stop gapping like idiots," Lily said sternly. 

The three quickly closed their mouths, and walked towards the hospital wing. Lily slacked behind them hoping to talk to Hagrid, but he refused to even look at her. Hagrid was most times a very gentle person but other times he was like an unyielding parent.

"Oh c'mon Hagrid," said Lily quickly, but Hagrid continued to look straight ahead. 

"It really wasn't all that bad. Just a bit of fun, you know?  I did have reasonable cause for my actions.  He was trying to steal my locket, that rat!" 

"Not that bad! Is that what ye think?" asked Hagrid in anger. "Ye could have been expelled for what ye just did."

 "Don't get in a huff, Hagrid. I hardly doubt I'd get expelled for turning someone into an ant. We do it all the time in transfiguration." 

"Ye might do that in transfiguration, but do ya also have heavy books falling from shelves about to squish ya into a pancake?" asked Hagrid with concern.

A smile began to curl at the ends of Lily's lips. 

'To be able to make James go splat might not be so bad,' she thought to herself. 

Hagrid sighed and calmed down a little at seeing Lily's eyes light up with amusement.

"Lily may I ask ye something?" Hagrid asked cautiously. 

"You just did," replied Lily. "But ask another one." 

"What do ye have against James?" asked Hagrid. 

Lily stopped short from the unexpected question. 

"What do you mean?" asked Lily, her voice slightly wavering.

"What do ye think I mean?" asked Hagrid seeing that Lily was uncomfortable with the subject. "Ye two are always fighting, and ye know what? It's annoying." 

Lily was taken back at his comment and glared at him through steely green eyes. 

"Don' get me wrong Lily, I think yer a great person, but I have a feeling that all yer fighting is because of something else." 

"I don't quite follow," said Lily confusingly. 

"Well I think ye and James fight because ye like each other," replied Hagrid. 

Lily's body grew numb, and her mind couldn't register what exactly was going on. A large wave of emotions rolled through her, but the strongest emotion was hatred. Hagrid looked at Lily and then took a fast step backwards. Lily's normally happy face grew a ghastly white, and it appeared to Hagrid that maybe he'd just made a tragic mistake. 

"Lil…Lily," asked Hagrid softly. 

Lily didn't answer, but continued to glare at him. Just when she was about to explode something gave way inside her, and the tiniest bit of admiration flooded into her. Hagrid stood cringing next to her, waiting for a huge verbal blow, but it never came. Slowly Lily's face returned to normal and she continued to walk to the hospital wing, leaving Hagrid in utter astonishment. As Lily became further and further away Hagrid sighed in relief. He had known Lily to loose her temper, but never had she seemed so furious. And then to just walk away without saying a single thing, this was not like Lily. Hagrid shrugged and hurried off to catch up with her fleeting image far ahead of him. 

When Lily finally reached the hospital wing, James's friends were already waiting. Apparently from the look on Madam Pomfrey's face, they had told her the story.

"The jar, please, Miss Evans," said Madam Pomfrey.

Lily pulled out the jar from her backpack, and handed it to Madam Pomfrey. She pulled off the lid to the container and plopped the ant onto a hospital bed. Then she walked over to one of the cabinets nearby and pulled out a small bottle containing purple liquid. After a single drop of liquid the ant disappeared and a very muddled yet handsome James sat on the edge of the hospital bed. 

Lily smacked herself for thinking such foolish things, and with Madam Pomfrey's approval, she said goodbye to Hagrid and hurried off back to the Gryffindor common room. 

            Upstairs in the girl's dormitory, Lily lay upon her bed starring at the ceiling.  She pulled the curtains closed on her four-poster bed and picked up a book that was lying beside her.  She tried to concentrate on the words but her mind was elsewhere.

            'Detention!  I still can't believe it! James Potter I will have my vengeance!'

            Lily sighed and then closed her eyes trying to come up with a foolproof plan to rid herself of James forever.


	3. Uneasy feelings

A/N: My deepest apologies for the long wait for this chapter, but I unfortunately have neglected to write anything for quite a while.  I don't know how long I can keep myself writing but I'll try very hard to write the fourth chapter much much quicker.  Please review!        

_~Chapter 3~_

For the past few hours Lily had tossed and turned in her bed with impatience.  She couldn't figure out a single workable plan to make detention miserable for James.  

She looked impatiently at her watch.  

'Two more minutes till detention…with him.'

Lily grumbled to herself and turned to look out her bedroom window.  

'Less then an hour before sunset,' she thought to herself with regret.

She quickly glanced back at her clock on the table.

'Times up.  Let the games begin.'

Lily slid off her bed and walked slowly to her bedroom door.  She turned to look out the window once more with longing and then she closed the door behind her.  She headed for the stairs and then a then stopped.  A feeling of forgetfulness came over her and unintentionally Lily turned around and walked back into her room.  Her eyes scanned the room's contents until they landed on a flashlight and a bag of chips that were lying on top of her dresser.

'Guess it can't hurt to bring those along,' thought Lily as she scooped the items into her jacket pocket.

With this she turned once more and left the room in silence.  

*       *       *

James looked at himself in the mirror.  His untidy black hair fell in his eyes and his face was a mask of disdain.  

'Stupid detention.  It's all her fault!  It's not like I've never gotten in trouble, but to have to spend several hours with her…it's disgraceful.'

A voice sounded from inside the room shaking him from his thoughts.

"Hey James! Dude, you need to hurry up.  Detention is starting soon and if you're not there in time then you'll end up spending more time with Lily."

James shut off the bathroom light and walked towards his bed.  He gave Sirius a distasteful look.

"Yeah, that's the worst thing I could possibly ask for at this moment."

Sirius laughed.

"James I never really understand why you and Lily always fight."

James looked reproachfully at him.  

"What, so you are taking her side now!  Real nice now even my best friend doesn't agree with me."

"Agree to what exactly?  Because if you ask me I think that she would be more tolerable if she were on friendly terms with us instead of us being on each others enemies list.  I mean you've got to admit that she does have some good ideas.  Take the ant incident for example.  That was pretty creative," said Sirius smugly.  

"I can't believe my ears!  Are you really suggesting that we befriend that annoying girl?"

"I'm just saying it couldn't hurt if we were a little nicer to her.  Maybe then you two can sort things out and not fight like cats and dogs every time you see each other in the halls.  It kind of reminds me of a married couple."

"Oh this is ridiculous.  I'll deal with you later," said James annoyingly.  

He walked to his bedside table and grabbed his jacket and then swiftly strode out of the room slamming the door behind him.  As he reached the bottom of the stairs he heard Sirius's voice echo down the staircase.

"Good luck James.  Try not to fall in love with her!"

Laughter rang out and James's face flooded with rage as he ran out of the Gryffindor common room and into the sun lit halls trying desperately to escape those last few haunting words from his friend.

When James arrived outside of Hagrid's hut for detention he found that Lily was already waiting.  She starred at him as he crossed the field of grass to his destination all the while avoiding eye contact with her.  Sirius's words kept replaying themselves in his head and mixed emotions were wrapped around the entire thought.

"Nice of you to join us Mr. Potter," said a voice behind him.  

James turned around to face Professor Dumbledore.  

"Sorry I'm late Professor.  It won't happen again."

Dumbledore smiled, " I should hope not.  I don't expect you to be getting into trouble again so soon."

"Professor, excuse me, but what are we doing here exactly?" asked Lily curiously.

"Good question Miss Evans.  Sorry to disappoint you two, but your detention is not going to be any ordinary sort.  So give me a few moments to explain the situation.  Actually I think we should go inside to discuss this matter.  Follow me."

Dumbledore walked up to Hagrid's hut and knocked on the door.  A series of loud noises was heard inside the house along with a deep bark from Hagrid's dog, Fang.  Suddenly the door swung open and Hagrid looked with surprise at Dumbledore.  

"Sorry 'bout that sir.  Didn't expect ya to be finished with your conversation with them so soon.  I was just getting the equipment ready."

James and Lily looked at each other with bewildered expressions.

"What does he mean, equipment?  I thought we were having detention, not fighting a war," whispered James.

Lily shrugged her shoulders and quickly starred back up at Hagrid and Dumbledore trying to avoid speaking directly to James.  At the moment she was fighting an inner battle with herself.

'Deep breaths Lily! No use in getting mad at him right now, there's plenty of time for that later on.  Think happy thoughts!'  

Lily shook her head in distaste.

'Ok now I'm scaring myself.'

Dumbledore's voice pulled Lily out of her reverie and she redirected her attention to the event at hand.

 "Hagrid I hope you don't mind but I would like to explain the circumstances to Lily and James inside."

Hagrid nodded in agreement.

"I don' mind at all Professor.  Please come in."

Dumbledore walked into the house and Lily and James followed closely behind.  But just before Lily stepped into the house she stopped and glanced uneasily at the forbidden forest, which was uncomfortably close to her.  Something was different about the woods.  Something bad.


End file.
